In today’s healthcare market in the US, it’s all above leverage to get reduced supply costs, increased health insurance rates, more patient volume through an expansive network, and brand to attract specialized leaders who then increase patient volume. Public hospitals, such as UConn, do also have to tend to the financial challenge of being a ‘safety-net’ or ‘last-resort’ medical provider, though most public hospitals can make-up some of those loses through Federal Medicare and Medicaid subsidies. But, that again is a volume business and volume is in cities, not lightly populated suburbs (nothing against Farmington, it’s a great town to raise a family) whereas even the neighboring cities have their own hospitals – Bristol, New Britain (Central CT Hospital), Meriden (MidtState), and Hartford (Hartford and St. Francis). That’s a lot of competition and doesn’t even include the 500-pound gorilla in the State, Yale New Haven, nor that fact that world-caliber hospitals in Boston and New York are less than a 2-hour drive from parts of the Connecticut. Most University Hospitals have a market to themselves – UMass (Worcester), UVM (Burlington), SUNY Upstate (Syracuse), SUNY Buffalo, Penn State (Hershey/Harrisburg), U Pittsburgh, Ohio State (Columbus), etc. Others that succeed in crowded market are a combination of world class (UNC, UCLA), or are in larger markets (Rutgers [thought University Hospital has its own financial issues which in part lead to Rutgers' take-over of UMDNJ], U Minnesota in Minneapolis, U Washington in Seattle, U Texas in Houston). Having a State, University hospital I believe is important to Connecticut; but, it should have never been established in Farmington. A joint program with Hartford Hospital or another similar arrangement would have been more viable.
